Senator Won’t Sugarcoat His Advice to Bush

WASHINGTON —  He tells President Bush the votes aren’t there to pass the administration’s tax cut. He says Bush’s spending proposals are too stingy to win approval. And he complains that Bush would short-sheet energy, research and other programs important to his home state.

All this from the Republican senator who is supposed to be leading the charge for the president’s fiscal policy.

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), in short, is a walking, talking reminder of the obstacles the Bush plan faces now that the debate on it has shifted to the Senate. Domenici drove the point home with renewed vigor Tuesday, giving a blunt assessment of the Senate head count.

“As of today, there’s not 50% [support] for a tax bill,” he told reporters. “The same thing holds with reference to the 4%” spending hike Bush has asked for--an increase many lawmakers regard as too small.

Other senators have offered similar assessments, but Domenici’s warnings carry particular weight. He is regarded as a key player in the GOP leadership, unsurpassed in his knowledge of federal budgeting and a staunch Bush supporter.

But he is also a political realist. And as he seeks to help the president promote his agenda, he is buffeted by a variety of forces. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, he is already inundated with requests from colleagues who want him to boost spending for their pet causes. Domenici himself represents a state heavily dependent on federal dollars. And he is a senior member of the notoriously eager-to-spend Senate Appropriations Committee.

“It’s a difficult challenge to balance those competing interests,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), an Appropriations Committee colleague who has asked Domenici to bump up Bush’s agriculture budget. “But if he’s not the smartest guy in the Senate, he’s tied with whoever else is.”

Showing the fine line he’s trying to walk, Domenici also said Tuesday that he expects to bring a budget resolution before the Senate that faithfully follows Bush’s plans--complete with 4% spending increase and $1.6-trillion tax cut. Beyond that, though, he cautioned that the Senate would “work its will”--probably by offering a slew of amendments that would challenge Bush’s fiscal blueprint.

In another important show of support for Bush, Domenici on Tuesday successfully led the opposition to a Democratic “lockbox” proposal that sought to sharply limit the uses of surplus revenue in the Medicare trust fund--and, in the process, make it much harder to enact Bush’s budget.

Despite Domenici’s view that Bush’s budget provides inadequate funding in some areas--including those vital to New Mexico--he pledged to fight to keep it largely intact. But he acknowledged that more spending and changes to the tax cut plan are probably needed to command a majority.

“I’m going to do my best to hold the line” on spending, Domenici said. But, he added, “I’m also going to do my best to work with the leadership to get 51 votes.”

The ensuing Senate debate will present Domenici, 68, with one of the most daunting tasks in a long career dedicated to budget policy. Domenici, the son of Italian immigrants who ran a grocery in Albuquerque, was first elected to the Senate in 1972. He has spent two full decades as chairman or ranking Republican of the Budget Committee, which put him on the front line of every major budget battle during that time.

Among his riskier moves, Domenici and other GOP leaders in 1985 persuaded Senate Republicans to swallow some tough anti-deficit medicine and pass a freeze on Social Security cost-of-living increases; the next year, Republicans lost their majority in the Senate.

As long as deficits reigned, Domenici was something of a wet blanket on tax cuts. Giving priority to balancing the budget, he often urged fellow Republicans, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, to be more cautious in their zeal to reduce taxes.

But Domenici the budget scold has always had another side: Domenici the appropriations maven who funnels millions of dollars to his home state. Sparsely populated New Mexico is home to several military installations and two Department of Energy national laboratories, including one at Los Alamos. Last year, New Mexico received more federal money per capita than all but two states, according to an analysis by researchers at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Some Democrats grumble privately that Domenici’s aggressiveness in his pursuit of federal funding for his home state conflicts with his image as a stern deficit hawk. But his constituents clearly do not share such concerns: He has trounced his opponents in his last three races and is considered safe when he comes up for reelection in 2002.

Both sides of Domenici have been on display as the spotlight has turned to him as chief handler of the Bush budget. He has been a dedicated advocate of the proposed $1.6-trillion tax cut, agreeing with Bush that returning as much of the surplus as possible to taxpayers should be the government’s goal.

But he has been sounding early warnings that it might not be easy. With at least two moderate GOP senators quickly saying they could not support the president’s full tax cut, Domenici told Bush in February--and has kept reiterating--that the votes to pass the measure in a Senate evenly divided between the parties will be hard to come by.

Meanwhile, once Bush released more details of his budget, Domenici voiced concern about its spending constraints. Although Bush’s budget would allow discretionary spending to grow by 4% overall, that includes even larger increases for education and defense. As a result, departments such as Transportation, Interior and Energy--each with programs vital to New Mexico--would see their spending squeezed.

Domenici was particularly steamed that Bush’s budget would cut energy programs--cuts he sought to prevent before the budget was released. Asked whether Domenici was angry when the administration did not respond to his pleas, a top aide said, “That would be an understatement.”

When Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill appeared before the Senate Budget Committee earlier this month, Domenici was upfront about his qualms. “Can we, in fact, do all the things that have been recommended with a 4% growth” in spending? Domenici asked. “I don’t know if we can.”

Top White House officials were not pleased, and they let Domenici’s staff know it.